Frequently asked questions

Can I contact my editor directly?

No, you cannot contact the editor directly. Contact with the editor will always be via the Scribbr support team.

Questions about our services

If you have any questions about our services, you can contact our support team via the chat, phone or e-mail (info@scribbr.com).

Ask questions and pass on demands from the supervisor when uploading the document

When you upload your document, you can write down all questions you have for the editor and discuss your supervisor’s demands. You can also send us your supervisor’s feedback in a separate document. We will make sure to pass on the information to the editor.

Questions about the edit and comments made by the editor

If you have any questions about the editor’s work, you can e-mail these questions to info@scribbr.com. We will make sure that the editor answers your questions.

Yes, as you upload your document you can fill in your preferences at step 4.

If you do not know if you wish to write in American, Australian, or in British English, the editor will choose American, Australian, or British English based on the English you currently use. If the editor has any questions about this, we will contact you.

Editing theses is still the work of people. And we, too, can make mistakes. If you are not satisfied with the editor’s work, please fill in the complaint form. We will contact you within a workday, and together we will find a suitable solution.

For a more comprehensive edit, you can add a Structure Check or Clarity Check to your order. With these building blocks, you can customize the kind of feedback you receive.

You might be familiar with a different set of editing terms. To help you understand what you can expect at Scribbr, we created this table:

Types of editing

Available at Scribbr?

ProofreadingCorrection of superficial mistakes, such as typos, misspellings, punctuation errors and consistency errors.

Yes! This is the “proofreading” in Scribbr’s standard service. It can only be selected in combination with editing.

Copy editingFocus on grammar, syntax, style, tone and the conventions of the field. The editor also considers the internal logic of the text and flags any obvious contradictions.

Yes! This is the “editing” in Scribbr’s standard service. It can only be selected in combination with proofreading.

Line editingFocus on language, style, concision and choices. The editor helps you strengthen your story, polish your sentences and ensure that your use of language drives home your ideas.

Yes! Select the Structure Check and Clarity Check to receive a comprehensive edit equivalent to a line edit.

Developmental editing (i.e. content editing, substantive editing)This is the first step of the editing process and applies to very early drafts. The editor helps you structure your ideas, decide what story to tell and find direction for your writing.

No. This kind of editing involves heavy rewriting and restructuring. Our editors cannot help with this.

If you want the language errors in your footnotes to be corrected by the editor, you can indicate this in step 3 of the upload process. The words in the footnotes are then automatically added to the total word count.

No, you cannot receive part of the edited file if the editor has not yet finished proofreading.

Our editors review your document in multiple passes, including a final check at the end. If we deliver part of the edit upfront, then the editor cannot do this final check for errors and consistency, which means that the quality of the edit will be lower. Therefore, it is not possible for us to deliver your edit in multiple parts.

Our Proofreading & Editing service entails checking for typographical and linguistic errors, appropriate word choice, academic style and consistency. Additionally, your editor will help you become a better writer by providing you with a personalized improvement letter designed to help you recognize and correct your most common mistakes.

After your document has been edited, you will receive an email with a link to download the edited document.

The editor has made changes to your document using ‘Track Changes’ in Word. This means that you only have to accept or ignore the changes that are made in the text one by one.

It is also possible to accept all changes at once. However, we strongly advise you not to do so for the following reasons:

You can learn much by looking at what mistakes you have made.

The editors do not only change the text, they also place comments when sentences or sometimes even entire paragraphs are unclear. We therefore advise you to read through these comments and take into account your editor’s tips and suggestions.

Because of the many changes, sometimes there may be double spaces, double periods, or other minor mistakes in a sentence. Checking the changes one by one, you can easily detect these minor errors.

We have written a manual in which we explain step by step how ‘Track Changes’ works.

Our editors are very experienced and will do their utmost to correct all errors in your thesis.

However, with our current rates, an editor can only check your thesis once. This may cause an editor to overlook an error. We can therefore not guarantee that your thesis is 100% error free after you have had your thesis edited.

In most papers, there are sentences that the editor cannot edit without additional information from the author. In these cases, your editor will provide guidance but leave you to implement the feedback. If we were to simply accept the changes for you, then these issues would be left unaddressed.

We believe students should be accountable for their work. Our editors can correct language errors and coach you to be a better writer. However, the end product belongs to you and should reflect your ideas and decisions.

Our editors are all language specialists and not specialists in your field of study. You can select your field of study while uploading and we make sure that the editor who is editing your work is familiar with editing work in your field of study. This means that your editor will understand what is written, but will not be able to give you feedback about the content.

We’ve carefully selected and trained all our editors before they started working with us. Their work is also continuously assessed to ensure that we can deliver the highest quality.

We only work with language specialists because our ultimate goal is to improve the language of your text and not the content. We believe that only those specialized in academic writing can truly improve your writing!

Frequently asked questions

At Scribbr, we are committed to protecting your personal information. That’s why our employees and editors follow specific guidelines to ensure the confidentiality of your work:

Pledge of secrecy

Signed statement prohibiting publication or third-party sharing

Obligation to delete files

Secure connection (SSL)

Both the original and edited versions of your document are saved on our secure server for 12 months. After this period, the files are automatically deleted. However, you can manually delete your files at any time via your user profile.

Tip: If you still have concerns about confidential information in your document, you can take additional measures to anonymize this data. We advise you to do the following:

Change company names and other identifying details

Delete data and analyses that do not need proofreading

Can I ask Scribbr to sign an NDA?

As a policy, we do not sign NDAs. Every NDA is complex and unique, and our legal team does not have the capacity to review each individual contract we receive.

However, we take extensive measures to protect the confidentiality of your documents. You can learn more about how we handle confidential information on our privacy policy page.